PLANS AND PLANNERS 



solved long in advance. Even the exposure times for 

 the ten thousand most important photographs were 

 worked out and clearly specified in the Operation Plan. 



One obvious advantage of the detailed, long-in- 

 advance planning was that it left the Task Force Com- 

 mander and his assistants relatively free to solve the 

 few unpredictable problems that were bound to arise. 

 Principal unpredictable matters were : weather, num- 

 ber of damaged target vessels which would require 

 beaching, extent of radioactivity to be found on target 

 vessels. As we shall see later, weather forced postpone- 

 ment of the "Queen Day" rehearsal of Test A, and all 

 but forced postponement of the ''William Day" re- 

 hearsal of Test B. It caused a half -hour postponement 

 of Test A. The radioactivity remaining on target ves- 

 sels after Test B was much more intense than most 

 persons had anticipated; considerable delays in re- 

 boarding, inspecting, and report- writing resulted, and 

 the final disposal of the surviving vessels was greatly 

 complicated. 



The planning was good. As later chapters show, 

 the Task Force assembled without incident and the 

 target vessels were moored in the positions decided on 

 weeks in advance ; both Tests came off on the intended 

 days; no one was injured by the explosions; and a 

 great mass of technical information was gathered. A 

 vast administrative machine had proved its power. 



45 



